Posted on 11/05/2007 1:23:50 PM PST by BradtotheBone
Despite protestations from an influential congressman, the World Bank is going ahead with plans to loan Iran nearly $900 million – with the largest chunk of money coming from the U.S.
Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, earlier this year asked the president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick – a former member of the Bush administration – to suspend the loans. Zoellick declined, according to the New York Sun.
Kirk, a member of the subcommittee that approves America’s share of the World Bank’s funds, warns that the loans totaling about $870 million will undercut U.S. and Western efforts to pressure Iran into ending the Islamic republic’s nuclear enrichment program.
The main Iranian bank now handling the World Bank transactions is Bank Melli, which was recently designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as financing the nation’s nuclear program.
Loaning money to Iran “sends a message that directly undercuts Western diplomacy with regard to Iran,” Kirk told the Sun.
Kirk said he told Zoellick: “Think of the embarrassment if the U.N. Security Council approves three separate sanctions, and the United States imposes its own unilateral sanctions, and three blocks away the World Bank cuts a check to the Ahmadinejad government.”
A spokesman for the World Bank said the loans were not prohibited by the Security Council sanctions already imposed on Iran, saying: “In relation to Iran, the Security Council resolutions exempt activities by international financial institutions for humanitarian and development purposes.”
Projects to be funded by the loans include improvements to Tehran’s sewage system, relief for victims of the Bam earthquake, and efforts to improve access to health care for rural Iranians.
Zoellick served as President Bush’s first trade representative and was a foreign policy adviser on Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign.
“The loans to Iran present Zoellick, in the first year of a 10-year term, with his first challenge between his loyalties to President Bush and his role overseeing the international institution,” the Sun observes.
Zoellick cannot overrule the bank’s executive board. But Kirk believes that if Zoellick put the loans to a vote, he would probably find a majority in favor of suspending the loans.
The largest donors behind the loans are, in order, the Americans, the Japanese, the Europeans, and the Saudis.
I like the way you think.
Follow the money.
Kickback to the bankers. Crooked bast*rds!
Seriously, I wonder if any real money is coming from the US or anywhere else. Does anyone really believe they are borrowing cash? When I bought my house I never saw the money I was borrowing, it was just numbers in a computer. With fractional reserve at work here the bankers create the money i.e. credits the computer keeps track of. Maybe a small amount of it represented someone else's deposits, and then there was my down payment, but the rest came from nowhere and was just a number the bank said I owed back to the system and I agreed to pay, with interest. No cash was ever in play and I suspect no cash will be in play here with IRAN either. Even the cash represents debt! It's all now just a matter of who you let play the game and today pretty much anyone can play no matter how skanky they are. If they do well they might spend the money with US firms enriching us, and still be able with oil profits to pay the "loan" back with interest. If they default, the banks making the loan will be bailed out with an SIV or something like it using OPM (other people's money). The world runs on credit.
Follow the money.
I wish I could follow the money. 468 million pledged to Abbas in the last 6 months from the US. Not sure how many billios pledged or sent to Pakistan. At least we are selling 20 billion in military equipment to Saudi Arabi. Nutty move on our part. How much has North Korea gotten from us? Lets leave out Iraq and Afghanistan. Just seems like a lot of money flowing out of this country to support terrorist states. I’m sure I am leaving so many billion more out. Glad we tax payers support all this.
This is from scrappleface,
No?
what the hell is this world coming to?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6925643.stm article from the BBC on a quick google search. Plug in 20 billion miltary arm sale to Saudi Arabia.
W and Rice approved it. Lets just be happy we can trust the Saudi’s, right?
aiding and abetting our own demise and destruction.
What a country!
This boggles the mind...
Didn’t we also approve an agreement with China and Westinghouse for some 8 billion dlrs so they can improve their nuclear reactors? None of the weapons to the Saudi’s will ever be aimed our used on our troops. So yes, What a country?
BTW, don’t hurt your head on the desk. We have a long way to go and a lot more money to give away.
FR ( head-scratchin’ bookmark )
Let’s give them $900 million in used ICBM’s
ping
~~Mayer Amschel Rothschild
Lets see now, how much US money funds the World Bank?
He’s too busy guarding the border. Everytime he takes one step forward, he jumps back two.
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